Books on the Bible

Biblical scholar Robert Alter says these works on the Good Book are heavenly

Updated Aug. 19, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

1. Mimesis By Erich Auerbach Princeton, 1953

The formidable challenge that Erich Auerbach set himself with "Mimesis" is made clear by its subtitle: "The Representation of Reality in Western Literature." But the German scholar succeeded brilliantly, producing a masterwork of 20th-century criticism that also happens to have pioneered a modern literary understanding of the Bible. Though only the first chapter is strictly focused on the Bible -- a comparison of a passage from "The Odyssey" with...